Holder promises West Indies revival after SA thumping

The skipper was on the wrong end of a de Villiers mauling but top-scored with 56.

SYDNEY: West Indies captain Jason Holder insisted both he and his side can bounce back at the World Cup following their 257-run thrashing by South Africa.

At the tender age of 23, Holder has been given one of the toughest jobs in world cricket in leading the strife-torn West Indies, who’ve fallen a long way from the heights that saw them win the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979.

But Holder’s problems on Friday were of the on-field variety as South Africa piled up 408-5 in an innings where Proteas skipper AB de Villiers struck an unbeaten 162 off just 66 balls.

Barbados paceman Holder was in the eye of the storm, his 10 overs costing 104 runs, with 64 runs alone scored off his final two overs. “If you take away my last two overs in which AB really took me apart, it would have been a different story,” said Holder. “It’s a tough task, with only four fielders outside the circle. I think if you analyse my bowling today, one player took me out. It happens and I just need to figure out what I can do better when things like that happen.”

The West Indies are still on course for a quarter-final place after winning two and losing two of their opening four Pool B matches and Holder urged them to hit back against defending champions India.

“I wouldn’t say it puts us on the back foot, we still have two games left,” said Holder. “We need to take it one game at a time. We have to deal with India next. We are going to be aggressive — we are going to play our normal style of cricket. We obviously have periods to improve on in terms of our ‘death’ bowling. I think once we do that we’re still a force in the competition.”

Holder recovered from his mauling with the ball to top score for the Windies with 56 as they were dismissed for just 151. However, none of the regular batsmen performed, despite having made 300 in all three matches so far. “Today was just the first off-day with the bat,” added Holder. “It was a daunting task to try and chase 409.”

A sympathetic de Villiers said Holder’s bad day was just one of the perils of captaincy. “He’s actually a really nice guy,” said de Villiers of Holder. “We’ve all been there, I’ve been there before in my career. I think every captain goes through really tough games. I think it was a really tough game for him today. I know he is mature enough to handle it, he has enough experienced teammates around him.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2015.

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